Author: Cibotaru Mihaela

In 2016, the Republic of Moldova allocated EUR 8 per capita to the justice system and was the country with the smallest amount allocated to this field. In 2018, the amount increased to Eur 17 per capita, which was 3.5 times less than the average of the Council of Europe (CoE) member countries. However, the share of the budget allocated to justice in the state budget, in 2018, was very high, accounting for 1.5% of all expenditures, compared with the average of 0.9% in the CoE member countries.

These data result from the analysis "Justice of the Republic of Moldova in figures - a comparative perspective", carried out by the Legal Resources Centre from Moldova (LRCM). The report presents a comparison of the justice in the Republic of Moldova with that of 10 countries from the former socialist camp, as well as the average of 45 CoE member countries. Based on the conclusions of the analysis, potential intervention needs at policy level in this area can be identified.

The authors of the analysis found that the bulk of the budgetary increases allocated to justice in recent years have been channeled to increase the salaries of judges and prosecutors. Although salaries were essentially increased, in 2018 the judges and prosecutors at the beginning of their careers in the Republic of Moldova received three times less than the average salary in the CoE countries. At the same time, compared to the average salary in the country, the salary of judges and prosecutors in the Republic of Moldova is close to the average of the CoE countries.

With 14.7 active judges per 100,000 inhabitants, the Republic of Moldova is considerably below average in the CoE member countries, where there are 21.5 judges. At the same time, the number of examined causes by the Moldovan judges is at least 30% lower than the average in the CoE member countries.

The Republic of Moldova is among the countries with the highest number of prosecutors per inhabitant, twice as many as in the CoE member countries. The number of prosecutor positions in the Republic of Moldova (720) is 43% higher than the judge positions (504). In countries with an advanced democracy the number of judges is higher than the prosecutors.

The number of active lawyers in the Republic of Moldova per inhabitant is 2.3 times less than the average in the CoE countries. This seems to be caused by populations` limited possibility to pay for their services and limited attention paid by system to lawyers' arguments. The number of active lawyers is also determined by the high number of lawyers' who suspended their activity.

The analysis shows that, on average, the cases in the Republic of Moldova are examined almost three times faster than in CoE member countries - 259 days compared to 735 days. This speed has a price - low quality of justice, which is implicitly confirmed by the high number of convictions of the Republic of Moldova at the European Court of Human Rights. The Republic of Moldova is among the countries where the justice is done with a high speed, after Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation.

The analysis "Justice of the Republic of Moldova in figures - a comparative perspective" was elaborated by the LRCM within the project "Institutional Support for Organizational Development", implemented with the support of the Swedish Embassy.

https://www.slideshare.net/NicoletaCojuhari/moldovan-justice-in-figures-a-comparative-perspective

The video from the launching event is available here.

The LRCM is the target of new attacks that are based on fake news and misinformation, aimed to discredit the organization and its views regarding the justice reform in the Republic of Moldova.

The last attack was launched on 1 October 2019 on a news portal with a suspicious reputation, through an anonymous article, full of fake news and insinuations, which targeted the LRCM and was published without contacting us in this regard. The attack emerged just after the LRCM experts expressed their critical views on the organization of the General Assembly of Judges that took place on 27 September 2019. The same text was also distributed among the judges, before it was published by the mentioned above portal. This article aims to keep the focus away from serious problems in the judiciary system and compromise both the LRCM, as an organization, and the public positions of its experts.

The article does not respect any deontological rules of journalism, but follows, in a loyal manner, the rules of misinformation: it has no author, it reflects imaginative speculations and denigrating allegations with no real grounds, it does not present the opinion of the person concerned, etc. Subsequently, this information is reproduced by other websites with suspicious reputation and promoting politically engaged messages. This way of misinformation has been widely documented in the Radiography of attacks against non-governmental organizations from the Republic of Moldova.

Taking into account the fake news promoted by the propaganda and misinformation channels, the LRCM clarifies:

1. The LRCM is a non-profit organization, independent and politically non-affiliated, which works in the interest of the society, and not for its members or political parties.
2. We have been monitoring the situation in the judiciary of the Republic of Moldova for almost a decade.Our analytical documents and activities in the field of justice can be found on our web page old2.old.crjm.org and can be used by all stakeholders interested in the reform of the judiciary.
3. The LRCM supports genuine reforms in the field of justice aimed to strengthen the independence of the judiciary system; reforming of the Supreme Court of Justice; ensuring transparency and accountability of the Superior Council of Magistracy; the selection, evaluation and promotion of judges based on merits; empowering judges, etc. All our recommendations on justice, suggested to the new Government, were published on 19 July 2019 in the White Paper on Good Governance.
4. Since LRCM foundation in 2010, the organization has provided recommendations to all governments and administration bodies of the judiciary regarding the reform and functioning of the judiciary in the Republic of Moldova.
5. We will continue to monitor the judiciary and make proposals to have an independent, efficient and responsible judiciary, carried out by honest and professional people, full of integrity, who cannot be intimidated by the attacks and misinformation they might be subject of.
6. The LRCM has monitored the Extraordinary Assembly of Judges as of 27 September 2019. The LRCM representatives publicly expressed their opinion regarding this event, as well as regarding the events that preceded the general assembly. Convocation of judges to discuss the issues of the judiciary is necessary and should have been designated by the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM), within a reasonable timeframe. Forcing this to be organized through judges’ decisions at the lighting speed was not the right thing to happen, thus only damaged more the justice image. The decisions of the Extraordinary General Assembly as of 27 September 2019 regarding the dismissal of the members of the SCM are against the law and create a dangerous precedent. Also, the Assembly amended the regulation on the operation of the General Assembly with regards to the procedure of the SCM members’ election, without discussing these amendments and sharing them at least to the judges before the voting. Such actions only harm the image of the judicial system.
7. The LRCM informs about its activities and the use of the received funds in a transparent way. The LRCM is submitting financial and narrative reports, to each donor, providing detailed reporting on how the received money was spent per each activity. We also carry out an annual audit of the funds received, including for every single project separately. The results of the audit are submitted to the donors and are included in our activity reports, which are published on the LRCM website.
8. The LRCM has a verification mechanism of complaints concerning the illegal or unethical behaviour, as well as any suspicion of corruption, fraud or conflicts of interest within the LRCM. All complaints can be submitted to sesizari@old2.old.crjm.org and will be sent directly to the Management Board of the LRCM that will examine them.

The LRCM has already been previously a target of attacks, which become more intensive in specific periods, particularly when we publicly express critical attitudes.

The LRCM will continue to support the promotion of democratic values and good governance, in order to strengthen democracy and the rule of law in the Republic of Moldova. We urge anyone to contact us to obtain information of public interest about the LRCM, before publishing any materials about the LRCM. Also, we urge the public to assess carefully the anonymous news or materials, which come from unknown or suspicious channels.

The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections calls for the Central Election Commission to adopt and publish, as soon as possible, a decision to allow the citizens of the Republic of Moldova with expired identity documents, wherever they will vote, to vote based on their expired identity documents in the parliamentary elections of 24 February 2019, as long as their identity documents allow their identification.

The Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections is concerned about the decision of 14 January 2019 of the Constitutional Court, which missed the opportunity to set equal voting conditions for all citizens of the Republic of Moldova regardless of their residence. That decision, however, does not set legal impediments for the Central Election Commission (CEC) to continue its practice of previous years and issue a decision allowing Moldovan citizens to vote based on their expired identity documents in the parliamentary elections of 24 February 2019, regardless of their residence.

The CEC decision to allow citizens to vote based on their expired documents is very important and necessary for effectively ensuring the voting rights and the consistence with its previous practice in the parliamentary elections of 2010 and 2014 and the presidential election of 2016. The CEC’s practice of allowing the voting based on expired documents is legal and was upheld and confirmed by the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) decision of 28 November 2014. CEC’s previous practice created a legitimate expectation among the citisenz that, in the parliamentary election of 2019, the CEC would allow voting based on expired identity documents again and, consequently, the citizens did not take actions in advance to renew their documents. Moreover, the government and the CEC did not carry out an extensive campaign to inform citizens about the intention to change this practice.

The CEC decision to allow citizens to vote based on their expired documents will avert unreasonable denial of the right to vote to a considerable number of people, which otherwise could have major impact on the election results. For example, according to the CEC decisions that allowed the voting based on expired documents in the parliamentary elections of 2014 and presidential elections of 2016, in October 2016, there were 409,791 Moldovan citizens with expired passports, and in November 2014, there were approximately 155,232 Moldovans with expired identity cards and 241,746 Moldovans with expired passports. In 2019, even more citizens might have expired passports, just as in 2016 there were more that in 2014.

The voting based on expired documents will facilitate the exercise of the right to vote. This is not going to create a threat of fraud or distortion of the election results, since, during the voting process, the identification of citizens with the voting right is done by checking the State Register of Voters, intended for collecting, storing, updating and analyzing data about Moldovan citizens aged 18 and above, including those from abroad, who are not forbidden from voting by law (Article 42 of the Electoral Code). The State Register of Voters is the only official source of personal data about the Moldovan citizens with the voting right, and it is updated automatically on a daily basis (points 5 and 18 of the Regulations on the State Register of Voters, approved by CEC Decision No. 2974 of 19 November 2014).

The CEC has all legal grounds to adopt and publish, as soon as possible, a decision allowing Moldovan citizens with expired identity documents, wherever they will vote, to vote based on their expired identity documents in the parliamentary elections of 24 February 2019, as long as their identity documents allow their identification.

The entire text of the public appeal is available here. 

The Romanian version of the appeal is available here. 

On 27September 2018, the Legal Resources Centre from Moldova (LRCM) organized a public event to discuss the analysis of the Strategy for the recovery of funds misappropriated from the banking system of the Republic of Moldova during 2007-2014, presented by the authorities in June this year. At the event were invited representatives of the Parliament, the Government, the National Anticorruption Center, the National Bank of Moldova, the judiciary, the development partners and the civil society. From the public authorities, only the Government and the National Integrity Authority honored the invitation.

Vladislav Gribincea, Executive director of the LRCM, said at the event that, after analyzing the Recovery Strategy, it is not clear who approved the document and the degree of commitment to its successful implementation. At the same time, almost 4 years after the end of the fraud, the exact sum misappropriated from the banking system is not known. The strategy also does not mention the fact that, after three years of investigation, no single leu of the stolen money has been returned yet.

The analysis finds that at least 20% of the amounts stolen from the banking system are not investigated in general. Although the stealing of at least 13.3 billion lei has been found, prosecutors are seeking recovery of only 10.7 billion, as 2.6 billion have been already recovered by selling the assets of the liquidated banks. Prosecutors report that 5.2 billion lei have been identified, although judges of the first instance have found that there is no evidence of 2.5 billion lei defrauded by Mr. Shor, that is about half of the amount with which prosecutors operate. Similarly, the authorities report receiving a sum of 2.7 billion lei from Ilan SHOR, although there is no court decision to collect this amount. At the same time, almost four years after bank fraud ended, the theft of about 38% (5.1 billion lei) of the stolen amount is still investigated by prosecutors.

The authors of the analysis believe that the Strategy is more of an advocacy tool, including because it was drafted and made public on the eve of the Moldovan leadership visit to Brussels. Also, the Strategy mostly concerns activities already covered by legislation, fact that cast doubt on the practical value of the Strategy in investigation of the fraud.

The full text of the Analysis of the strategy for the recovery of funds misappropriated from the banking system of the Republic of Moldova is available here.

The video recording of the presentation event of the Analysis of the strategy is available here.

The Legal Resources Centre from Moldova analyzed the Strategy for the recovery of funds misappropriated from the banking system of the Republic of Moldova during 2007-2014, which was presented by Moldovan authorities in June 2018. LRCM found that, although Moldova has a strategy for recovery of funds misappropriated from the banking system, it is not clear who approved the document and what is the degree of commitment to its successful implementation. It is not exactly known what amount has been stolen from the banking system. The strategy does not mention the fact that, after three years of investigations, no single leu out of stolen money has been returned yet.

The analysis finds that at least 20% of the amounts stolen from the banking system are not investigated in general. Although the stealing of at least 13.3 billion lei has been found, prosecutors are seeking recovery of only 10.7 billion, as 2.6 billion have been already recovered by selling the assets of the liquidated banks. Prosecutors report that 5.2 billion lei have been identified, although judges of the first instance have found that there is no evidence of 2.5 billion lei misappropriated by Mr. Shor, that is about half of the amount with which prosecutors operate. Similarly, the authorities report receiving a sum of 2.7 billion lei from Ilan SHOR, although there is no court decision to collect this amount. At the same time, almost four years after bank fraud ended, the theft of about 38% (5.1 billion lei) of the stolen amount is still investigated by prosecutors.

The authors of the analysis conclude that, as a rule, such strategies are not made public to ensure the effectiveness of investigations. That Strategy was made public at a press conference in June this year, on the eve of the Moldovan leadership visit to Brussels. The country's leadership used the document as an advocacy tool. These issues raise doubts about the independence of the institutions that made the Strategy public, but also about their involvement in political games. These disclosures, along with the fact that the Strategy mostly concerns activities already covered by legislation, cast doubt on the practical value of the Strategy in investigation of the fraud.

The full text of the Analysis of the strategy for the recovery of funds misappropriated from the banking system of the Republic of Moldova is available here.